Following on from the revelation that North Korea has the bomb, everyone is now trying to stay calm – but with about as much success as Corporal Jones from Dads Army.
At a quick count in the past week, I have read stories, presumeably eminating from sources in our own and the US government, that the bomb test;
a) may not have taken place at all
b) must have been very small indeed
c) must have been so small as to have been barely worth recording
Take your pick.
Anyway, what we do know is that US Secretary of State Condi Rice has been despatched to the region to calm down the terrified locals and promise that if Kim Jong-Il twitches, the US will nuke the country faster than the roadrunner can outfox Wile E. Coyote.
Reassuring for all concerned.
It made me think about taking one’s eyes off the ball – North Korea has a been an issue a long time and the Bush administration chose to ignore it in favour of regime change in Iraq. I won’t talk about that now, but Simon Jenkins has written a thoughtful piece about it in The Guardian today.
